Cornwell, who has defended athletes such as Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, is
representing Martin while the NFL investigates allegations of workplace abuse by
offensive guard Richie Incognito that caused Martin to leave the team last week.
On Thursday night, Cornwell released a statement addressing some of the comments
made by players this week.

"Jonathan Martin's toughness is not at issue. Jonathan has started every game
with the Miami Dolphins since he was drafted in 2012," the statement said. "The
issue is Jonathan's treatment by his teammates. Jonathan endured harassment that
went far beyond the traditional locker room hazing. For the entire
season-and-a-half that he was with the Dolphins, he attempted to befriend the
same teammates who subjected him to the abuse with the hope that doing so would
end the harassment. This is a textbook reaction of victims of bullying. Despite
these efforts, the taunting continued. Beyond the well-publicized voicemail with
its racial epithet, Jonathan endured a malicious physical attack on him by a
teammate, and daily vulgar comments such as the quote at the bottom. These facts
are not in dispute.

"Eventually, Jonathan made a difficult choice. Despite his love for football,
Jonathan left the Dolphins. Jonathan looks forward to getting back to playing
football. In the meantime, he will cooperate fully with the NFL
investigation."

Earlier Thursday, the Dolphins tried to direct their attention to Monday's
game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"I'm not concerned about any of that stuff," Dolphins coach Joe Philbin
repeatedly said when asked about the allegations of player misconduct inside of
the organization. "My focus is on Tampa Bay and getting our players to help them
reach our potential, individually and as a football team."

Players offered support for Incognito Wednesday, and on Thursday they
expressed displeasure with the way Martin handled his issues.

"I just feel like some things, he chose to leave and when he left, he
realized he left the premises and was like, 'Oh shoot, now I have to give an
explanation of why I left,' which is going to drag Richie into it and to throw
other people into the mess and it's like, come on. You chose to do what you
did," offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie said. "You left. That was on you. And
it's like, just end this whole thing. Whatever you're going to do, make your
decision, end this thing and let's get this thing figured out.

"He can move on, Richie can move on. What does he plan to do? I don't get it.
What does he plan to do? He's just going to keep hanging out there, until what?
Like, what are you doing?"

When told Martin had hired Cornwell, McKinnie wasn't pleased.

"To do what?" he said. "Well I don't see any of the team really wanting to
pick him up after this because they're going to feel like you're mentally not
strong enough to handle this. So he needs to think about that, too."

On Monday, several players said they would welcome Martin back to the
Dolphins if he was well enough to return. The barrage of questions from the
media and ongoing coverage of the situation, however, may be wearing on the
patience of some players.

"It's pretty bad for us as a team to have something like that happen," tight
end Dion Sims said. "I just think we have to move forward."